The general consensus was that the game was fun and the idea exciting. However ALL the players reported that the game was just too hard - even at its novice level. A clear UX problem. At least the AI must be less relentless especially when the player's plane is on the ground, and in general less aggressive and a much worse shot.
One player remembered (correctly) that the original had a 'No enemy' mode where you could play without enemy planes just to practice flying and bombing - this is an excellent idea and I can easily build such a 'CADET' mode.
They also expressed a general feeling that the game could be more forgiving - stall less damaging and/or less easily; make is easier to launch your bombs without dying on them and similar ideas.
Everyone noticed the changes of theme but didn't really associate them with different generations of video technology. I think I want to do something more explicit on screen for this.
A few bugs were reported:
- a way to clock up the score without any effort by messing with the AI pilots.
- no one liked the bullets and bombs and smoke graphics - this is fine as these were just place holders at the time of the testing - I got cool graphics for them (now),
- some issues with corner case collision detection (destroyed building / plane hits plane)
- issues with the rules around planes on the ground and plane crash sites and how they affect the game play
My play testers also had a few interesting ideas I didn't expect: a change of name: Is 'Sopwith 2019' a good joke? 'Sopwith Returns' is maybe cooler?
I have quite of lot of bytes but not a lot of time - just a few refinements...
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